Springbok team to face Scotland announced

Heyneke Meyer has made five changes from last week to the team that will take on Scotland in Nelspruit on Saturday.

Following the injury to Jano Vermaak, Ruan Pienaar will start at scrumhalf, while Marcell Coetzee also joins the starting XV in place of Francois Louw, who has been released from the squad in preparation for his wedding day.

The bench sees the return of Bismarck du Plessis, who has been in recovery for the last 10 months following a knee ligament injury.

Siya Kolisi and Piet van Zyl are also on the bench, and could potentially get their first caps.

“It’s great to have Bismarck back in the mix, but I’m even more excited about the inclusion of Piet and Siya on the bench,” said Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer.

“This time last year, Piet and Siya, along with Arno Botha, were part of the group of six young guns who trained with us and now all three are in the Test match squad. I’m very happy with the progress they’ve shown in the last 12 months.”

Meyer also emphasised the continuity that he’s seeking in the Springbok team.

“To have this kind of continuity is good as we prepare for a Test where the focus is on ourselves, and how we want to improve on certain areas from last week where we felt we let ourselves down,” said Meyer.

“We respect Scotland, but we’ve set ourselves some benchmarks which we would like to achieve during this series. Saturday’s Test provides another opportunity to reach these aims.”

The Springbok team:

15 Willie le Roux, 14 Bryan Habana, 13 JJ Engelbrecht, 12 Jean de Villiers (c), 11 Bjorn Basson, 10 Morné Steyn, 9 Ruan Pienaar, 8 Pierre Spies, 7 Arno Botha, 6 Marcell Coetzee, 5 Juandré Kruger, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Jannie du Plessis, 2 Adriaan Strauss, 1 Beast Mtawarira.
Subs: 16 Bismarck du Plessis, 17 Trevor Nyakane, 18 Coenie Oosthuizen, 19 Flip van der Merwe, 20 Siya Kolisi, 21 Piet van Zyl, 22 Pat Lambie, 23 Jan Serfontein.